A songbook of progressive/protest music for the twenty-first century. Dozens of anthems from 1970 to the present, from around the world, all with an essential "hook" that makes them ideal for progressive mobilizations and celebrations.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" - U2

Driven by a ferocious martial drumbeat and a hauntingly universal refrain -- "I can't believe the news today / I can't close my eyes and make it go away" -- "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is one of U2's imperishable anthems. Like another song on this list, The Cranberries' "Zombie", it's inspired by the Irish Troubles: "Bloody Sunday" references the British massacre of 14 demonstrators in Derry on January 30, 1972. But like "Zombie," it also rejects the terrorism of the Irish Republic Army (IRA). The lyrics anyway are general and allusive, and the song has proved readily adaptable in U2 concerts over the years, as a call to resist battle calls and bear aloft a standard of peace.

Like many of U2's great anthems -- think of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" on this list, or "One" -- "Sunday Bloody Sunday" has a clear spiritual dimension. It's implicit in the title, but only becomes explicit at the end: "The real battle just begun to claim the victory Jesus won / On Sunday, bloody Sunday ..." Secular progressives may want to snip the entire last verse, which includes those lines, and concentrate on the song's epic essence:

I can't believe the news today

Oh, I can't close my eyes

And make it go away

How long...

How long must we sing this song

How long, how long ...

'Cause tonight ... we can be as one

Tonight ...

Broken bottles under children's feet

Bodies strewn across the dead end street

But I won't heed the battle call

It puts my back up

Puts my back up against the wall

Sunday, bloody Sunday

Sunday, bloody Sunday

Sunday, bloody Sunday

And the battle's just begun

There's many lost, but tell me who has won

The trench is dug within our hearts

And mothers, children, brothers, sisters

Torn apart

Sunday, bloody Sunday

Sunday, bloody Sunday ...

Here's the original version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday," leading off U2's breakthrough third album, 1983's War:

The version at Red Rocks recorded for the Under a Blood Red Sky live video and album is a barnstormer, with Bono famously declaring: "This song is not a rebel song" (beginning at 2:37):

Undoubtedly the most emotional live performance of the song was filmed in Denver, Colorado for the Rattle and Hum movie and CD, on November 8, 1987 -- the same day that IRA terrorists killed thirteen civilians in a bombing at Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, evoking one of Bono's most passionate declamations from the stage.

The radiant final cut on the War album, "40", was a singalong concert-closer during this period. It echoes the opening lyric of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" with its "How long to sing this song?" refrain. However, its anthemic potential is restricted for secular activists, since the lyrics are so openly religious, drawn from Psalm 40 of the Old Testament.

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Adam Jones, Ph.D.

We need new anthems. "We Shall Overcome" and "If I Had a Hammer" and "Give Peace a Chance" all had their moment, but they now sound dated and even clichéd. This blog proposes a new songbook (see list below) -- with selections from 1970 to the present -- for the activists of the twenty-first century. To qualify as anthems, these tracks must (a) be broadly positive/ progressive in content; (b) have an essential and substantial "hook" (a line, a verse, a chorus) that could realistically be sung by many progressive people at once, whether for protest or celebration; (c) reflect the ever more globalized world of activism, which means I'm always on the lookout for diverse materials from the Global South; and (d) be appealing to me personally, or why would I be doing this? I'll be blogging over fifty of my own proposals, and I welcome suggestions for further entries. You can share your comments at the end of each entry, and email me with your feedback. Please also let me know if you find any broken links. Now -- let's raise our voices! Adam

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